تسجيل الدخولI locked the door behind me.The diaries sat on my desk where I'd left them—three leather-bound volumes, edges worn soft from years of handling.Her diary was labeled simply Alice. Every good Luna kept one. Her journals. After her reign, they were kept in the libraries and taught to the pack pups to instill wisdom, humility, and compassion toward fellow pack members. Not a pack requirement, just good politics. After this was all over, anything that wasn't confidential I would turn over to the pack libraries. My mother's Alice's handwriting filled every page. She never liked the title Luna and refused to let the pack address her that way. Neat. Precise. The kind of records a Luna kept when she knew the pack's survival depended on memory.I pulled the first one toward me and opened it, hoping to find something I may have missed in my first pass. The leather creaked.The pages smelled like dust and old ink.I started reading.Names. Dates. Alliances. Feuds that went back decades.
Beta Antonia found me three hours later, still at the border between the Alpha Thomas pack and the Ashwood pack.I was still at the barn, coordinating patrols with Marc and River. The 48-hour clock was already ticking.She didn't knock. Just walked in, and the look on her face stopped every conversation cold."We have a problem," she said.Her voice was flat. Clinical."Livestock are dead near the eastern creek. Three patrol wolves are vomiting blood. Two children from the lower settlement are running fevers." She paused. "The water smells wrong."Marc's hand stilled on the map.River's jaw tightened."How many dead?" I asked."Twelve head of cattle. Four goats. All within fifty yards of the creek."Rose stirred, low and dangerous. Poison."Show me."The ride to Eastern Creek felt longer than it should have.The air changed before we reached the water—something metallic and sharp cutting through the pine. The birds went silent first. No crows. No jays. Just nothing.We cut our engines
When we landed at Alpha's Thomas Pack lands, we were taken directly to the Beta's home for debriefing. My sister's pack was being starved and killed off slowly. Strategically, from the enemy's perspective, this would remove our closest ally, aside from the Black Talon pack, making the Ashwood pack more exposed to threats. We set the trap to fish out the pack members who have been poisoning the soil and the river fish that fed the pack. This sabotage was directly impacting the pack's ability to trade, its income, and its self-sustaining capacity.Their reputation for outstanding food quality was being systematically destroyed, and coming back from that could pose a huge challenge and take years. Ashwood pack would support them in every way possible. The rumor that we planted spread like wildfire.Rare heirloom seeds. A new well, untainted, deep enough to bypass whatever poison had seeped into the aquifer. Alpha Thomas let it slip to his council—loud enough that the right ears wo
We planned at the Iron Den long into the night—me, my mates, the remaining Alphas and Betas, every voice in the room sharpened by exhaustion and fear.The map on the table was covered in red marks: hit sites, poisoned wells, burned crops, dead livestock. Every “X” was a wound in our territory, a warning that the attack on the packs had already started.An attempt to undermine Laney as the Alpha and weaken pack loyalty to make both my and Sirus’ capture easier, inevitable. The packs may be more likely to give us up if they are starved out of their land.But at this moment, Mara was still my most immediate threat because she had already tried to kill me. She’d gone dark after her last failed power play, but the word was she was gathering her own loyalists, promising the moon if they delivered my head, or—worse—Sirus.Why the destroyer wolf? Because with me gone, the packs would fracture. With Sirus out of the way, the next generation’s power would be theirs to mold or destroy. The younge
I dispatched the Alpha in record time, calling up the Destroyer Wolf for speed and efficiency. He was twice my size, and I still took him down in under two minutes—maybe dragged it out a little, just to make a point. In case anyone else in the bar thought it was a good idea to test me.They didn’t.Afterward, with the Alpha at my feet, I lifted my gaze to the room. “You’re either with me, or you’re not,” I said, voice cold. “If you’re not, get the fuck out. We’ve got business—and outsiders aren’t privy to it.”Half the bar emptied in record time. Engines roared to life outside, motorcycles tearing away into the night.If this weren’t so serious, I might’ve laughed.River moved first, heading for the door and locking it down tight.“Marta,” I said, not even raising my voice. “Refresh everyone’s drinks. On me.”She nodded. “Yes, Alpha.”Cade clapped his hands once—sharp, commanding. The room snapped toward him, tension still crackling from the fight. Blood in a room full of Alphas alway
I didn’t hesitate.By the time the thought formed, I was already moving, taking the stairs two at a time, boots hitting hard enough to echo through the hallway. My pulse was up, not out of control—but sharp, focused, the kind that meant something had shifted, and there was no going back.Inside our room, I stripped fast, swapping out what I’d been wearing for what I needed. Jeans. Fitted tee. My worn boots. The leather jacket went on last, the weight of it settling across my shoulders like something familiar. Something grounding.This wasn’t left here for a reaction. They wanted me scared, sloppy, and panicked. This was the intention.I stepped back into the hall and almost collided with River.He caught my arm before I could move past him, his grip firm, his eyes already searching my face.“Where the hell are you going, Laney?”The growl in his voice rolled low, not directed at me—but close enough to brush against my skin.I pulled my phone up between us, the message still open.H.E







